Archived News:
Eurogamer has translations from an article on Dutch website Control Online with comments from Ubisoft's Michel Verheijdt, which if accurate, reveal two unannounced Tom Clancy games are in development. He plays it coy after the revelation, though, saying: "I can't say anything about it, or I'll have to send Sam Fisher after you." With the recent release of Splinter Cell Conviction and the upcoming release of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, the choices for the other two games would seem to be Rainbow Six, EndWar, H.A.W.X., or a new Tom Clancy franchise.
Following news that Hydrophobia is an Xbox 360 exclusive, IncGamers has a confirmation that this is one of those Vizzini "I do not think it means what you think it means" exclusives, and the underwater shooter is still coming to PC and PlayStation 3. Dark Energy Digital's Pete Jones tells them the PC version is on the way, as these "exclusives" usually concern console platforms, and that a PS3 version will follow "at some point," though specific release dates for neither are offered.
Steam News has word that another patch is now available to automatically update Team Fortress 2, Valve's teamplay shooter. The update includes a new community map among the lengthy list of balance changes, which follows. Continue here to read the full story.
The City of Heroes Website has details on the free Issue 17 update that's now live for Paragon Studios' superhero MMORPG. The new issue, titled Dark Mirror, includes a number of enhancements, including a new "ultra" graphics mode, which is outlined and illustrated on this page.
The Blacklight Tango Down Website is live, offering an official home to this upcoming first-person shooter from Zombie Studios. The site features information about each of the game's maps, intelligence briefings on its weaponry, and a breakdown of enemies encountered in Blacklight's "Black Ops" co-op missions.
A new BioShock 2 "Rapture Metro Pack" Trailer highlights the upcoming Rapture Metro Pack DLC for BioShock 2, 2K Marin's underwater shooter sequel. The clip concludes asking the pertinent question of when to expect the DLC, which is met with the response that it's rated "M." Here's the embedded version. Continue here to read the full story.
A new Singularity "Cause and Affect" Trailer offers a dialog-free cinematic from Raven's upcoming temporal shooter. The clip has a brooding moody quality, though it doesn't necessarily provide any insight into cause, affect, or effect for that matter. The embedded version follows. Continue here to read the full story.
Rockstar Week on Steam. Two hour deals all week long, in addition to the bundle below. Also, Direct2Drive Spring Sale Week Three is underway: "Direct2Drive will be giving gamers $15 in store credit when they spend $75 or more on any titles site-wide during the Spring Sale."
- Hazen: The Dark Whispers on Steam. Save 10%.
- Ironclads: American Civil War on Steam. Save 10%.
- Ironclads: High Seas on Steam. Save 10%.
- The Whispered World on Steam. Save 10%.
- Wolfenstein on Direct2Drive. Save 50%.
Still on sale (previously reported)
Continue here to read the full story.
Thanks Neutronbeam and Mike Martinez.
Link of the Day: Bacon Is A Way Of Life. Mmmmm, bacon. Thanks Ant.
Steam News announces that Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter is now available via digital distribution. Word is: The glorious high-definition (HD) chaos continues in Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter, the highly anticipated arcade action FPS sequel to the Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter. Developed by Croteam, Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter combines spectacularly enhanced visuals, including more polygons, higher resolution textures and more special effects like hippy and kids mode, with trademark frantic gameplay for a non-stop action.
It seems this Saturday we will get answers to questions about the direction the Call of Duty series, as a promo on GameTrailers for the next installment in GameTrailers TV promises the announcement of the next Call of Duty game and says they will debut a teaser trailer for the military shooter sequel, saying it will be the "talk of the internet this weekend." The show normally airs on Spike on 12:30 am, though this trailer has an overlay saying the show will air Friday at 12:40 am, which is actually Saturday (Gametrailers has always ignored that whole day-starts-at-midnight concept). A check of DirecTV listings shows this week show is indeed starting a bit late (it actually says 12:39).
The AMD Graphics Drivers & Software Page is where to locate the new version 10.4 Catalyst reference drivers for ATI Radeon accelerators. For gamers, the new drivers offer performance improvements for 5000 series cards when playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, fix long load times for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 maps on the 5000 series, fix flashing that could occur playing Shattered Horizon under CrossFire and flickering after changing resolution in Alien vs Predator under a multi-GPU configuration, fixes in-game antialiasing when options like Volumetric Effects are enabled in Empire: Total War and Napoleon: Total War, and fixes flickering corruption and flashing textures in Bad Company 2. Highlights from the patch notes follow. Continue here to read the full story.
The Guild Wars 2 Website has two new articles written by Eric Flannum, Lead Designer on ArenaNet's upcoming MMORPG. One article introduces the Elementalist, offering details on the character, a batch of new screenshots, and a brief movie trailer showing some elemental skills in action (recalling Richard Pryor's point that people get out of your way when you're on fire). The other piece is a write up of skills in the game, describing the role of skills in the game, outlining their skill system, and touching on the inclusion of "elite skills." Update: There's a Guild Wars 2 interview on MMORPG.COM where lead designer Eric Flannum answers questions about the game.
The Battlefield Blog outlines how Battlefield: Bad Company 2 owners can gain early access to the M24 Sniper Weapon System in Medal of Honor following the release of the next installment in EA's other military shooter series. Word is: "The M24 access will be automatically awarded when Medal of Honor releases to all players who have bought Battlefield: Bad Company 2 new and claimed their VIP code (in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 box only) or played Battlefield: Bad Company 2 online (PC). The same EA account must be used in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Medal of Honor to make use of the M24."
A new patch is now available for Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, updating EALA's real-time strategy sequel to version 1.03 by adding three new maps: "Capitol Coup," "Disputed Depot," and "Bridge to Nowhere." This is an oddly low-key release, as it is not mentioned on the Command & Conquer Website, but rather in a forum post by APOC from yesterday where the C&C community manager says the patch actually went live on Monday, adding: "If you have any update issues, please post your specifics here. Also, if you have an issue, please inform if you were patched to 1.02, and what version of the game you have (STEAM, EA Store, retail), and your country location." Thanks (WTF)Omegaman.
True Games Interactive announces the promised open beta test for Mytheon is now live, offering the chance to sample the prerelease version of Petroglyph's online action/RPG. They are offering prizes to those who participate, as outlined on this Open Beta Event Page, where word is: "Come and play during the first three days of the new Mytheon Open Beta (April 28-30th) and you’ll be entered to win from hundreds of great prizes. Compete in PvP, PvE, and explore the newest MMO from True Games and Petroglyph. Players can win an Alienware M17X laptop computer, multiple iPod touches and up to 100 iTunes gift cards."
New patches for X3: Terran Conflict are now available to update EGOSOFT's space combat sequel to version 2.6. Among other things, this new version adds new community-developed content, described like so: "New Home missions, which promises [sic] to be quite an adventure for those who like their THINK missions. This project has been developed by members of our own community and after a period of testing and evaluation is ready to be shared with the wider Terran Conflict-playing world." Though Steam News is mum on the topic, the update for the Steam edition is available automatically since yesterday. The EGOSOFT Website has the manual editions of the patch for download, but they also note that all X3: Terran Conflict owners are entitled to convert to the Steam edition, which now includes new Steam achievements. Details on how to register the retail version with Steam can be found on this page. If you are unmoved by that offer, the manual patches are also mirrored on AtomicGamer, The Patches Scrolls, and WorthPlaying.
GamesIndustry.biz (registration required) has word that Mike Griffith has resigned his posts as CEO and president of Activision Publishing, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. The resignation is effective as of April 23, though he continues as vice-chairman of Activision Blizzard on a 12-month rolling contract. Reasons for the move are not supplied.
An announcement from dtp entertainment reveals that Q4 of this year is the latest planned release window for Gray Matter, the upcoming adventure game from Jane Jensen, famed for designing the Gabriel Knight series. The announcement also includes word that the game is coming to the Xbox 360 at the same time, saying: "The game’s control system has been adjusted to fit the console’s requirements – other than that, Gray Matter’s PC and Xbox 360 versions are absolutely identical." The latest official release date we saw for the game was 2009, but it has suffered several delays since it was first revealed about seven years ago.
The Herald Sun relates the results of a survey by The Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, conducted online (red flag) among 1945 participants, reporting that this identified 8% of respondents as "problem gamers." They report: "These players admitted to gaming for extended periods - in some cases more than eight hours a day - had fewer friends in real life and had even lost a significant relationship as a result of excessive play," and that: "Other problems extended to craving more play time, and restlessness or irritability if they couldn't get back to the controller." In a comparison that may rankle family and friends of those suffering drug or alcohol addiction, they say Psychiatrist Guy Porter, who co-wrote a paper based on the survey's findings, said video game dependence was similar to drug and alcohol addiction, though the quote they offer could serve as a warning of the dangers of too much anything: "Any pleasurable activity has the potential to become addictive or to form a repetitive pattern of use." Thanks Computer and Video Games.
A post to the Electronic Arts UK Community by DICE's Barrie Tingle (Bazajaytee) indicates EA has not forgotten the version 1.51 patch for Battlefield 2142 first promised in November 2008. A year later the patch was said to be in closed beta testing, but DICE said then and since that the patch had no ETA as it was waiting on a programmer to have some time away from updating Battlefield: Bad Company 2, though another wrinkle is: "As some might remember, our build machine HDD also died so Niklas is going to have to rebuild the build scripts for BF2142." As of this latest update the patch is still a ways off: "So BF2142 v1.51 is at least a few months out but it is certainly still coming and we haven't forgotten about it." Thanks Ant via Planet Battlefield.
Had a fine old time at our anniversary dinner last night: MrsBlue had something that swims (I tend to avoid eating water-breathers, myself), while I had a pork tenderloin that lived up to the "tender" part very nicely. I've been considering trying a pork or beef tenderloin on the grill for years now, and this may have inspired me to actually give that a shot.
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